Boutcha: American satellite images contradict Russian version

The accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, that they come from the Ukrainian authorities, the media or NGO, have multiplied since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians, February 24 .

Le Monde with AFP

Satellite images published, Monday, April 4, by the American society Maxar Technologies contradict the Russian affirmations that the corpses of people in civil heritage found in the Ukrainian city of Boutcha there were placed after the Russian troops evacuated the places. On the images of Maxar dating back to mid-March, one can distinguish several bodies of extended civilians, dead, in a street of Bindcha or on the side.

The charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity (indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian cities, kidnappings of civilians, rape, torture, murder …), that they come from the Ukrainian authorities, media or organizations. Government (NGOs), have multiplied since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians, on February 24, who have since confronted with a fierce resistance of the forces of kyiv and deny the abuses.

The Ukrainian army took over to the Russians a few days ago this city located northwest of kyiv. The Ukrainian authorities have affirmed, during the weekend, having found many bodies to be bordered after the withdrawal of enemy troops.

These “high resolution images (…) corroborate recent videos and photos on social networks revealing the presence of extended bodies in the streets [of Budcha] and abandoned for several weeks,” says Maxar Technologies in a statement.

In a close-up analysis of the IABLOUSKA street provided by Maxar, The American daily New York Times writes Monday, after comparing them with video images of the bodies connecting this street turned the 1 and April 2, that many of them had been there for at least three weeks, when the Russian forces controlled the city.

Monday, the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, “categorically” rejected all these charges, ensuring that the experts of the Russian Ministry of Defense had discovered signs of “falsifications” in the images presented by the Ukrainian authorities as evidence of a Russian massacre. This denial was repeated in New York at a press conference of the Russian ambassador at the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia.

“We know that thousands of people were killed and tortured”

But according to the Maxar satellite images dated March 19 and 21, several bodies already join the rue Iblannska at these dates, as the shows This video published by a New York Times reporter . According to the analysis of the American newspaper, these images reveal dark traits of a size similar to that of human bodies on this street from 9 and 11 March.

Many bodies present on the satellite images appear exactly in the same ground position as it revealed by a video of IABLOUSKA street taken by a local municipal councilor or photographs published by international media.

In another image overlapping comparison, the New York Times analyzed a video published on Instagram of a body lying in the street in front of two cars. According to the daily, a Maxar image of March 21 shows the body and the two vehicles in the same position, in the same place.

Monday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, went to Bantha, where he denounced “war crimes” and a “genocide” after the discovery of dozens of corpses wearing civilian clothes in the city and in the city. Other communities near the Ukrainian capital.

“You are here and you can see what happened. We know that thousands of people have been killed and tortured, have had torn members, women were raped and killed children,” He stated at an improvised press, after having made a few meters in a city center littered with shredded carcasses of Russian troops and armor vehicles, in the middle of destroyed houses.

/Media reports.